I'd have to strongly disagree, but Dan will be able to say more about this -- while there's nothing as completely wracked in terms of sound as well as mood as "To Have and to Hold" on there, say, the whole second half of the album is a pretty dour (and dourly pretty) wandering through the emotional wasteland.

Unexpected highlight joy of seeing them at Dodger Stadium in 1990 -- Martin Gore, solo with acoustic guitar, singing BC album track "Here is the House," never released as a single or anything...and the entirety of Dodger Stadium singing along word for word, as best as I could tell.

I underrate this album as well, I think. But Ned's post was so great that I had to put it on again. It is very good, and the arrangements are often really ace. I think my favourite tracks are "Behind The Wheel" and "The Things You Said" - the restrained dancefloor minimalism on "Behind the Wheel" in particular works so fantastically, and it's a shame that they worked that angle so rarely (the other ace examples being "It's No Good" and "Personal Jesus", although the latter is sort of off in its own world). I find I always want DM to go darker and darker, more muscular and physical (but not necessarily rockier), so "Behind The Wheel" is just perfect for me. But I love the bonus remix tracks on this album as well for similar reasons.

Well thank ya Tim, yours is a fine one in turn. :-) Those bonus tracks are certainly grand and maybe I'll do an adjunct post on them. Did you snare all the recent remixes that came out with the box set and the singles?

Kudos, Ned. Kudos. You've just brought back a flood of high school memories - good ones, too: my Mode-head first girlfriend, bugging the DJ to play "Behind The Wheel" at school dances, teaching myself to play all the bass and synth lines from "Strangelove" on piano (and marvelling at the 12-inch remixes of same).

Along with New Order, Depeche Mode left an INDELIBLE mark on my musical development - I've forgotten how many times I've referenced / cribbed / ripped them off wholesale over the years.(Oddly enough, I've never sampled either artist.) Even though my own work has become increasingly house- and techno- focused over the years, these guys are still relevant as fuck to me.

I don't have my vinyl copy of this anymore, so it's time to go get this and Black Celebration in one shot.

I too would like to voice my approbation to the Nedster for his fine essay. If I remember correctly, Music for the Masses was about the fourth album I purchased (I know I already had The The's Infected and the Pet Shop Boys' Please and Disco by that point), but it's not just nostalgia that causes me to regard it as one of my all-time top-ten albums (evah!), and my absolute favourite from the Mode canon.Music for the Masses cast a particularly long shadow over the development of my musical tastes. It seems even now to have been a high-water mark in terms of imaginative songwriting and perfectionist studio-craft. (Would it have been such a triumph without the production and arrangement skills of Alan Wilder? I think not.)101, the movie, brims over with arresting images, but a particular favourite is the scene in which one of the fans (the pretty blonde girl) dances to Nothing on the tourbus. She gyrates pertly as Dave intones that we must "learn to expect... nothing", and the congruence of sex and nihilism is so very Modish.It's interesting that people assume that Little 15 is addressed to an adult. Maybe it's because I was about fifteen years old when I first heard the song, but I never imagined that Little 15's lover was anything other than a boy of her own age. Indeed, I don't think I've ever heard a song that so perfectly captures the all-consuming obsessiveness of the teenage love affair.

It's interesting that people assume that Little 15 is addressed to an adult. Maybe it's because I was about fifteen years old when I first heard the song, but I never imagined that Little 15's lover was anything other than a boy of her own age. Indeed, I don't think I've ever heard a song that so perfectly captures the all-consuming obsessiveness of the teenage love affair.

I always thought Little 15 was about a mother and daughter, with the mother wanting to recapture her youth through her teenaged girl.

I'll leave out the new album, for even though I think it's one of their top two or three albums upon initial listens, it hasn't had time to sink in yet and be ranked along with the others. I'll also leave out the two live albums, just because.

ViolatorMusic For the MassesUltraBlack CelebrationSpeak and SpellSongs of Faith and DevotionSome Great RewardConstruction Time AgainExciterA Broken Frame

I bought this album recently. For the first six tracks it is undoubtedly the Greatest Depeche Mode Album Ever but like Violator it does lose sa fair amount of steam towards the end (especially "Pimpf"--sorry, just can't get down with their weird medeival-goth instrumentals). Maybe I need more listens. The first six tracks (four of which I already knew going into it) do ensure this one total classic status regardless, though.

and also this basic as hell guitar part which is ALL YOU NEED. It's like Gore loved playing anti-solos.

hey now, this may be true Ned, but if i'm remembering rightly this album was the first real use on DM records of any "guitar parts" full stop? and Martin was actually still learning to play i think, so it may have been basic as much from ability as intention. can't argue with the end result in any case though.

but, ah this just reminded me of some friends back in the day who always sang pimpf as "more..... beeer". brain surgeons, them.

The first guitar I can think of used on a Depeche track comes with a couple of brief bits during the instrumental break on "Love In Itself," beyond that I'm not sure.

By all accounts Martin composes most of his songs on acoustic or electric guitar, and he's well known for apparently always having a guitar with him or nearby, so it's not like he's afraid of the darn things. ;-) So in ways that's why I'm impressed with him as a guitarist -- he aims for the killer hook first and foremost, which in large part is why Depeche songs with guitar feature just that hook and nothing more, in that nothing more is needed. "Enjoy the Silence" is the almost paradigmatic example...

Heh, it's quite clear! The break basically alternates between four 'acoustic' bits -- some piano, a little guitar filigree, more piano, and then a soft, glam-descend-like guitar bit, and then back to Dave. None of these parts is longer than a couple of seconds, but they're not buried, and they're great additions to the song.

Never close to my favourite album by Depeche Mode (as a matter of fact, the only album I like less is SOFAD), but I joined this thread to praise just one song: "The Things You Said" is one of the best things they ever did. An absolutely perfectly sad and desparate song, backed with synths that sounded like synths for once. One of their best ever moments.

As far as I'm concerned, Depeche Mode as an album band does not exist before Construction Time Again. I really really dislike those first two albums (even though there are some songs that exhibit the greatness they would grow into on there, listening to either of those albums in their entirety makes me want to scream).

An absolutely perfectly sad and desparate song ... one of their best ever moments

yes. absolutely.

I really really dislike those first two albums

i have a soft spot for "speak and spell", although i think the non-album tracks that were later included on the CD (ice machine, shout, the instrumental any second now) are better than anything on the album proper. but there's an oddly beguiling mix of innocence and homo-eroticism about the whole affair that makes it more than the sum of its parts.

and "puppets" is quite simply ace.

i have "a broken frame" on cassette and "some great reward" on badly scratched vinyl, so those are the two i listen to the least (ie haven't listened to in years). the fact i've never bothered to get them on any other format says a lot; that said, my tastes have changed hugely since my early mode-buying days (14 years ago, mostly) so i know i should revisit them. IIRC there was one song towards the end of "broken frame" with an absolutely killer melody; and, as i think i said somewhere else, "precious" reminds me of it slightly.

i still don't own "ultra" and haven't heard it in its entirety. my bad.

Ultra is a little bloated -- it's an hour in length and it feels like a LONG hour when you listen to it all the way through. Compared to their other great albums (including "Playing the Angel") the songs sound same-y. I'm sure they wanted to capture a particular mood that would seep throughout the whole album, but "Playing the Angel" shows that they can do that while still utilising a large palette of different sounds. while Some of those five/six minute tracks could lose a minute or two, and the album could stand to lose about two tracks and 10-15 minutes. It's the only DM album that I would criticise for being too long (I believe it is their longest?)

Still, the good stuff on it is *fucking great* (the singles, THE BOTTOM LINE, Insight ...) so I love it despite its many flaws.

france didn't have francs in 2004 and if they did 6 francs would be almost less than $1 US. a record like 'music for the masses' wouldn't sell for that.

that said, fantastic album

'never let me down again' is an absolute tour de force. one of the most compelling opening tracks around. from there on the record mellows and explores different moods, but everything remains cohesive and intriguing, and on a sheer track by track level, things hold up very nicely. it's a bizarre sort of record, one that is on certain levels quite subtle and self-absorbed and on other levels grandiose and dramatic.

'nothing' is really very lyrically profound. understated in delivery to be sure, but the lyrics demand close atention

"The Things You Said" is fan-fucking-tastic, as Martin-led songs usually are. Sometimes it's my favorite DM song, but of course that changes every five minutes. :) Does it really have anything to do with the "joys of drug use" though??

I love love love this album. Not quite as flawless as Construction Time Again or Black Celebration but I have no complaints to speak of. It's got great beats.

I still don't see it as my favourite Depeche Mode album. It is partly the entire 1987 aesthetic I dislike (electronic music in the midst of primimtive D50/M1 sampling machines and the DX7 - never liked the sound of those). I also feel like the album wears a bit thin towards the end.

Like I already said, I absolutely love "The Things You Said". I also have a soft spot for "Sacred" and "Nothing", and "Strangelove" sounds great in the album version (as opposed to the somewhat thin-sounding single version that predated it)

"Never Let Me Down Again" and "Behind The Wheel" are just too monotonous for me to enjoy them. I know they are loved by several fans, but I haven't quite gotten the grip. The too-authentic-sounding piano on "Never Let Me Down Again" also puts me off somewhat - somehow it just doesn't sound synthpop/electronic enough. "Behind The Wheel" sounded better in its 7 inch version btw.

"To Have and To Hold" is kind of interesting in a weird way, as is definitely "I Want You Now". Both could have done with a better arrangement, as could definitely "Little 15" - a wonderful ballad that is somehow partly spoiled by a nagging and irritating backing track (particularly at the beginning)

Which leaves us with "Little 15" - probably the most pointless thing they ever did. Would have been better off having been replaced by "Pleasure Little Treasure"; and let me add that I am no fan of "Pleasure Little Treasure" either.

Tedious reverence around them aside, when it comes to the music and performances of it, it just bugs, like an itch you can't scratch. I don't find much in the way of personal connection there, in fact really none, maybe a song or two aside.

it would be politically and philosophically incorrect to know Ned's top 20 songs by any of his favorite bands. he gave us Ned's Nineties and anyone who dares connect the dots further from there is on their own.

I always tend to prefer the album mixes of Depeche tracks over their single versions. For me, the single versions of 'Strangelove' and 'A Question Of Time' seem to lack the power that the album versions have. I suppose the Zephyr mix of 'In Your Room' is an interesting and different take on the song, but for me there is nothing more powerful than the 6-minute dark and atmospheric-as-fuck album version.

My favourite version of 'Never Let Me Down Again' is the one on 101 where they segue into the remix briefly for the middle section. I often find myself listening to it and wishing that they could have put that pulsing bass synth section into the album version.

I've always found 'Blue Dress' and 'Clean' closes the Violator album perfectly. Granted, neither of them are as anthemic as many of the tracks that came before, but those songs are definitely in the right place on the tracklist. The way that 'Blue Dress' segues into 'Clean' via that interlude piece is one of the highlights of the album for me!